Left-hander Jordan Montgomery figures to be among the most sought-after free agents on the starting pitching market this offseason. With righty Aaron Nola having already returned to the Phillies on a seven-year deal earlier this week, only recently-posted right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and reigning NL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell compare rank ahead of Montgomery on MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents list in terms of starting pitching options for 2024. While the Yankees, Cardinals and Red Sox have both already been connected to the southpaw this offseason, Montgomery is also receiving interest from the team he just won the World Series with. Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Rangers “hope” that they’ll be able to bring Montgomery back into the fold this offseason.
That’s hardly a surprise, given the excellent form he showed since being shipped to Texas by St. Louis over the summer. In 11 starts following that deadline deal, Montgomery posted a sterling 2.79 ERA that was 60% better than league average by measure of ERA+ with a FIP of 3.27. While his 2023 strikeout rate of 21.4% was more solid than elite, his already strong 6.2% walk rate this season improved to a phenomenal 4.9% figure during his time with the Rangers down the stretch. Montgomery paired his ability to limit the free pass with a 43.2% groundball rate that placed him just outside the top-20 by that metric among qualified starters this season. It was more of the same during Montgomery’s six postseason appearances for Texas this October, during which he posted a 2.90 ERA in 31 innings of work.
Montgomery’s strong 2023 caps off a trio of three seasons that have seen the southpaw establish himself as a quality front-end starter for a playoff-caliber team. In splitting his time between the Yankees, Cardinals, and Rangers from 2021-23, Montgomery has posted a 3.48 ERA and 3.62 FIP while making at least 30 starts in each of those seasons. Over the past three seasons, Montgomery is one of just 20 pitchers to record at least 500 innings of work, a feat that establishes him as one of the game’s premiere workhorses at this point in his career.
Given his recent performance and the number of teams known to be in the market for starting pitching this offseason, Montgomery is at least a plausible fit for plenty of clubs. The Rangers are certainly included in that. While the club’s Opening Day rotation can at least be plausibly filled with Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, and Andrew Heaney, both Dunning and Heaney spent time in the bullpen for Texas in 2023 in addition to their time in the rotation. It’s also worth noting that each of Scherzer, Eovaldi, and Gray spent significant time on the injured list this past season, while Heaney has a lengthy injury history of his own.
While ace righty Jacob deGrom could return from Tommy John surgery sometime next season, deGrom wouldn’t exactly provide reliable innings coming off the second Tommy John surgery of his career and with just 186 2/3 innings of work over the past three seasons of his career. Given the substantial injury risk in the Rangers’ currently projected rotation, reuniting with Montgomery would be a sensible decision to add some stability to a front-of-the-rotation picture that otherwise features a pair of oft-injured veterans in Scherzer and Eovaldi and could add a third arm befitting of that description in deGrom later in the year.
Of course, a deal is hardly a slam-dunk even in spite of the clear fit and interest on Texas’s end of the equation. After all, Montgomery has already been linked to three other teams this offseason and plenty of clubs are in need of starting pitching help and could enter the market for his services as the offseason progresses. What’s more, the Rangers are expected to make improving the club’s bullpen a focus of their offseason after the club’s relief corps posted a brutal 4.77 ERA in 2023. Though the addition of Montgomery would allow the club to improve the bullpen by moving Heaney or Dunning into a multi-inning relief role, the club’s bullpen would likely benefit far more from the addition of a late-inning arm like Josh Hader or NPB lefty Yuki Matsui.
Such a signing wouldn’t necessarily preclude the Rangers from adding Montgomery, as they’ve hardly shied away from making multiple significant additions in recent offseasons. That being said, it’s fair to at least wonder how much the club plans on increasing its payroll (which already sits at $214MM for next year according to RosterResource) in light of recent reporting that Diamond Sports Group is considering dropping Rangers broadcasts ahead of the 2024 campaign. If Diamond were to do so, it would leave the Rangers without a distribution partner for local broadcasting, a reality that has already led the Twins toward cutting payroll this offseason.
Not surprising, considering he was very good for them and instrumental in their championship success. Honestly, once he left NY he flourished, maybe it’s the beard.
Maybe it was the Yankees.
Why wouldn’t they be? He’s as advertised.
Spill the tea. Who’s his beard?
It’s just a rumor
Enviable situation: earned a ring. Can go to highest bidder or best situation. Yankees, Cards, Rangers all want him back, which speaks volumes
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reds go for him too. He would make a lot of sense for them and may want to be the main guy in a rotation.
Reds will have to offer more than a Walmart gift card and jelly of the month club though. I don’t see it.
TBH- if it’s between the Yanks, Rangers, Cards, etc. I’d go with the team I had the most success on, if the money is about the same across the board- And the Rangers are clearly willing to pay top dollar for the guys they want, so Montgomery can make his 6 years/$150M or even 7 years/$189M or something with them- and probably have more on the field success, have the contract be considered more of a success…
And BTW- I’m a Yankees fan. I want the Yankees to get good players and have them succeed there. But yeah- clearly Montgomery had his best success with Texas, even given a small sample size- and they should get back together.
Honestly, he thrived in STL to almost the same extent the he thrived in TEX; his 11 2022 STL starts after being traded produced better peripherals than his 11 2023 TEX starts after being traded.
It seems he’s an adaptable pitcher and could likely fair well in any situation.
7/189 is crazy for Jordan Montgomery. Crazy if that’s what the market will pay for him.
I am going by the Rangers’ recent contracts and he’s a guy already projected for 6 years/$150M so I assume multiple clubs will offer him that and someone will have to top it and that someone will be the Rangers.
I agree with what you just said 100% and I’m a Yankee’s fan to. It could be a New York thing do like you said. Monty should probably re-sign in Texas. If he doesn’t resign I think he will sign with the Yankees, especially if Yamamoto goes somewhere else.
Monty is good, but not as good as the version they saw. They’re the team most likely to “overpay” for his services.
Yup, Texas will overpay. He’s a hero down here now. Him and Carter.
As a Rangers fan, I don’t expect him to put up a sub-3.00 ERA season for the next few years so that’s not why I want him back. His reliability in taking the ball every 5th day with good results is what the Rangers rotation needs. The only guys who didn’t miss significant time due to injury last year were Dunning, Gray and Heaney, and while they’re perfectly fine pitchers, Monty is an upgrade over them.
Patrick Corbin is a lefty who reliably takes the ball every fifth day. I’m sure the Nats would play let’s make a deal if the Rangers move on from “Monty”.
Maybe you missed the part where I said he takes the ball every 5th day with “good results.”
Patrick’s results in 2019 were terrific. The flag doesn’t fly at Nats park without him. He’s one of a handful of the most durable starters in the majors. What’s not to like — beyond recent results and his $35 million price tag for 2024…
Last five years:
Corbin, 138 starts, 41 wins (on a very bad Nats team after 2019)
Montgomery, 105 starts, 27 wins (despite being traded to contenders each of the last two seasons)
Even if you just look at the last three years – removing Corbin’s 2018 and 2019 seasons when he was one of the best pitchers in the NL — Corbin has made more starts than Montgomery and they’ve each won 25 games.
Corbin is not good at this stage of his career — and Montgomery is not an ace.
I can’t believe you’re unironically arguing in favor of win-loss record having value, but I’ll humor you for a bit. Let’s look at the last 3 years when they’ve both been fully healthy.
Montgomery: 25-24
Corbin: 25-50
Additionally, the Nationals as a team have gone 33-60 when Corbin takes the ball, while teams have gone 45-49 when Montgomery takes the ball and that’s largely due to the atrocious level of run support he gets. Still, this is stupid and so are you. A pitcher gets a “win” if they go 5 innings and give up 10 runs so long as their team scores 11. Monty goes every 5th day and gives his team a chance to win the vast majority of the time, even if they don’t win because they can’t get runs on the board (which isn’t his fault).
I could see Montgomery resigning with the Rangers
I don’t think the Rangers need him but perhaps with the extra money a championship brings they will bring him back. I really think the Rangers should focus on their bullpen but perhaps they will do both.
I think Montgomery would be wise not to sign with the Yankees. After that World Series run, Rangers feel like a good fit.
The Yankees are where his best friends are and they are the ones that taught him how to pitch… Sadly, they kept him on a leash and wouldn’t let him pitch the way he could… I’m sure if he came back, things would be different, unless of course Cashman still hasn’t seen the error of his ways
I’d actually prefer the Braves pursue Montgomery instead of Gray for multiple reasons.
Wouldn’t be opposed to it but the money gotta be right
Not @ 6/$190
6/$150 would be ok but I don’t think AA gives a pitcher on the open market that length.
That’s why Gray is so appealing 3-4 yrs
No bullpen in St Louis so easily back with rangers
Yep, Rangers bullpen is way more impressive.
Monte has 2 winning seasons and is 38-34 in six seasons. He was a good buy last year at 10 million, but will be a major over this time around!
Imagine focusing on Win-Loss record in 2023 lmao
Rangers 1-9 to resign Monty….no way he goes back to the skankees
Hey Keo – what’s a skankees?
Rangers or Cardinals
He’ll go back to the Rangers or sign with a clear contender. I can’t see him going back to cesspool east Missouri so he can be on bad teams for the next 6-7 years.
yelling from your moms basement again I see. How’s that Iowa pro baseball team doing? oh wait.
Spend the money on bullpen pitchers and keep a rotation of Eovaldi, Scherzer, Dunning, Gray and either Heaney or Bradford.
Red Sox allegedly like him more than they liked Nola and Snell, they need to move with some aggression. They can’t afford to be passive if they’re trying to rehab their image in the eyes of the players and compete in 24
I would love Monty back in NY but also bring in Snell. Monty alone doesn’t move the needle. Besides it’s NY lineup that needs a complete overhaul. Sign Chapman and Bellinger and trade for Soto. Unload Stanton, Torres and Rizzo.
Snell is a good pitcher but he doesn’t pitch enough innings. He’s only pitched over 130 innings twice in his career. Definitely not worth what he’ll likely get
@mlbnyyfan Dude, this isn’t fantastic baseball in a six-player league. Chapman also burned his bridge with the Yankees.
I don’t think he was referring to arOLDis.
I was too late to edit but my first sentence still stands.
@YankeesBleacher so you tell me how to overhaul that lineup. That’s in desperate need of change
State tax might be the deal breaker here between Rangers and Cards. I think a $20M aav feels right about Monty. But if Rangers signed him, they are 100% out in the Ohtani bid. They don’t have Mets-like deep pocket to go over $300M.
Texas ABSOLUTELY has deep pockets like the Mets. One the largest and fastest (if not the fastest) growing markets in the US w/ a brand new stadium.